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Here’s the plan—each week, I will blog about a different song, focusing, usually, on the lyrics, but also on some other aspects of the song, including its overall impact—a truly subjective thing. Therefore, the best part, I would hope, would not be anything in particular that I might have to say, but rather, the conversation that may happen via the comments over the course of time—and since all the posts will stay up, you can feel free to weigh in any time on any of the songs! With Grateful Dead lyrics, there’s always a new and different take on what they bring up for each listener, it seems. (I’ll consider requests for particular songs—just private message me!)

When the Bush regime invaded Iraq in search of the supposed hidden caches of weapons of mass destruction, I changed the kicker line on the “Annotated Lyrics” website to the line from “Blues for Allah”: “The ships of state sail on mirage and drown in sand.”

It has been, what, 11 1/2 years? And despite a regime change here at home, we seem to find ourselves embroiled in an endless war in the Middle East. Once again, the United States is engaged in hostilities that include air strikes and now, boots on the ground, and there is a new enemy, the self-proclaimed Islamic State.

The Grateful Dead refrained fairly emphatically from overt political expression, but “Blues for Allah” stands with those very few songs that do make a statement. “Standing on the Moon”; “Ship of Fools”; “My Brother Esau”; “Throwing Stones”—those few songs (you might argue for “U.S. Blues,” and indeed, several others) stand as the exception.

Hunter wrote about the song, in A Box of Rain: "This lyric is a requiem for King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, a progressive and democratically inclined ruler (and, incidentally, a fan of the Grateful Dead) whose assassination in 1975 shocked us personally. The lyrics were printed in Arabic on the jacket of the Middle Eastern release of the album."

The lyric may be a requiem for a certain King, but it stands as a universal statement about war. “What good is spilling blood? It will not grow a thing.” It includes an overt acknowledgement of the conflict between Muslims and Jews: “Let’s meet as friends / The flower of Islam / The fruit of Abraham.”

It contains an appeal to reason in the face of opposed beliefs:

Let's see with our heart
These things our eyes have seen
And know the truth must still
Lie somewhere in between

I’ve made the case a number of times for the significance of taking a principled stand for not knowing, with the phrase “I don’t know” becoming a touch-point throughout so many of Hunter’s lyrics. When the truth lies “somewhere in between,” we are open to the state of ambiguity, and that alone can defuse conflict, I believe. It’s when people are sure of themselves, when they buy into a dogma, that they feel it is the right thing to kill someone who believes differently.

The lyric includes a number of pointed references, including scriptural (“the needle’s eye is thin”), and literary (“the thousand stories have come round to one again”—a reference to Scheherazade, who also appears in “What’s Become of the Baby?”).

Never a staple of live performance, the song uses a freely-flowing, unmetered melodic line (no time signature is given in the printed music) that breaks out of western musical norms. Nothing unusual about breaking out of norms, for the Dead, but there is something unusual about “Blues for Allah,” musically speaking, that is unlike most of the other unusualness in which the band indulged. It’s a disciplined, planned, and rehearsed weirdness.

“Blues for Allah” is a suite that includes the subsequent “Sand Castles and Glass Camels” (attributed to the entire band) and “Unusual Occurrences in the Desert,” which is credited, as is “Blues for Allah,” to Hunter and Garcia. The mesmerizing “Under eternity, under eternity, under eternity blue,” refrain seems to go on for quite awhile (nine repetitions), and then the “Bird of paradise” section of “Blues for Allah” is reprised, followed by Garcia playing the melody once through. It’s worth noting that the motif that opens the suite on the album is the “Under eternity” phrase.

I enjoy the lyric linkage to “What’s Become of the Baby?” because of the similar position occupied by the two songs on their respective albums—not attempting to sound like songs, really, but as experimental musical compositions with sung parts.

The vocal parts on “Blues for Allah” are varied and complex—great care was taken with the arrangement of the voices so that the various harmonic implications of the melody could be explored, without much in the way of instrumental clues. Donna’s wailing parts over the top of the “under eternity” section are effective and eery and perfect.

I always wished to hear the song done live. I’ve played it, by request of my minister, in a church service as an instrumental piano piece. But really, I need to arrange it for choir, mapping out the vocal harmonies, and enlist my drummer friends to do it right—I think it would be a very effective piece done in a very low-tech, acoustic manner.

The song has been brought back in several performances. Furthur played it, as did Warren Haynes in his “Jerry Garcia Symphonic” shows with symphony orchestras. So I think the song will live on.

But even without any more live performances, the song stands as a reminder of the hopelessness of war.

Here’s the plan—each week, I will blog about a different song, focusing, usually, on the lyrics, but also on some other aspects of the song, including its overall impact—a truly subjective thing. Therefore, the best part, I would hope, would not be anything in particular that I might have to say, but rather, the conversation that may happen via the comments over the course of time—and since all the posts will stay up, you can feel free to weigh in any time on any of the songs! With Grateful Dead lyrics, there’s always a new and different take on what they bring up for each listener, it seems. (I’ll consider requests for particular songs—just private message me!)

When the Bush regime invaded Iraq in search of the supposed hidden caches of weapons of mass destruction, I changed the kicker line on the “Annotated Lyrics” website to the line from “Blues for Allah”: “The ships of state sail on mirage and drown in sand.”

It has been, what, 11 1/2 years? And despite a regime change here at home, we seem to find ourselves embroiled in an endless war in the Middle East. Once again, the United States is engaged in hostilities that include air strikes and now, boots on the ground, and there is a new enemy, the self-proclaimed Islamic State.

The Grateful Dead refrained fairly emphatically from overt political expression, but “Blues for Allah” stands with those very few songs that do make a statement. “Standing on the Moon”; “Ship of Fools”; “My Brother Esau”; “Throwing Stones”—those few songs (you might argue for “U.S. Blues,” and indeed, several others) stand as the exception.

Hunter wrote about the song, in A Box of Rain: "This lyric is a requiem for King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, a progressive and democratically inclined ruler (and, incidentally, a fan of the Grateful Dead) whose assassination in 1975 shocked us personally. The lyrics were printed in Arabic on the jacket of the Middle Eastern release of the album."

The lyric may be a requiem for a certain King, but it stands as a universal statement about war. “What good is spilling blood? It will not grow a thing.” It includes an overt acknowledgement of the conflict between Muslims and Jews: “Let’s meet as friends / The flower of Islam / The fruit of Abraham.”

It contains an appeal to reason in the face of opposed beliefs:

Let's see with our heart
These things our eyes have seen
And know the truth must still
Lie somewhere in between

I’ve made the case a number of times for the significance of taking a principled stand for not knowing, with the phrase “I don’t know” becoming a touch-point throughout so many of Hunter’s lyrics. When the truth lies “somewhere in between,” we are open to the state of ambiguity, and that alone can defuse conflict, I believe. It’s when people are sure of themselves, when they buy into a dogma, that they feel it is the right thing to kill someone who believes differently.

The lyric includes a number of pointed references, including scriptural (“the needle’s eye is thin”), and literary (“the thousand stories have come round to one again”—a reference to Scheherazade, who also appears in “What’s Become of the Baby?”).

Never a staple of live performance, the song uses a freely-flowing, unmetered melodic line (no time signature is given in the printed music) that breaks out of western musical norms. Nothing unusual about breaking out of norms, for the Dead, but there is something unusual about “Blues for Allah,” musically speaking, that is unlike most of the other unusualness in which the band indulged. It’s a disciplined, planned, and rehearsed weirdness.

“Blues for Allah” is a suite that includes the subsequent “Sand Castles and Glass Camels” (attributed to the entire band) and “Unusual Occurrences in the Desert,” which is credited, as is “Blues for Allah,” to Hunter and Garcia. The mesmerizing “Under eternity, under eternity, under eternity blue,” refrain seems to go on for quite awhile (nine repetitions), and then the “Bird of paradise” section of “Blues for Allah” is reprised, followed by Garcia playing the melody once through. It’s worth noting that the motif that opens the suite on the album is the “Under eternity” phrase.

I enjoy the lyric linkage to “What’s Become of the Baby?” because of the similar position occupied by the two songs on their respective albums—not attempting to sound like songs, really, but as experimental musical compositions with sung parts.

The vocal parts on “Blues for Allah” are varied and complex—great care was taken with the arrangement of the voices so that the various harmonic implications of the melody could be explored, without much in the way of instrumental clues. Donna’s wailing parts over the top of the “under eternity” section are effective and eery and perfect.

I always wished to hear the song done live. I’ve played it, by request of my minister, in a church service as an instrumental piano piece. But really, I need to arrange it for choir, mapping out the vocal harmonies, and enlist my drummer friends to do it right—I think it would be a very effective piece done in a very low-tech, acoustic manner.

The song has been brought back in several performances. Furthur played it, as did Warren Haynes in his “Jerry Garcia Symphonic” shows with symphony orchestras. So I think the song will live on.

But even without any more live performances, the song stands as a reminder of the hopelessness of war.

Member for

Here’s the plan—each week, I will blog about a different song, focusing, usually, on the lyrics, but also on some other aspects of the song, including its overall impact—a truly subjective thing. Therefore, the best part, I would hope, would not be anything in particular that I might have to say, but rather, the conversation that may happen via the comments over the course of time—and since all the posts will stay up, you can feel free to weigh in any time on any of the songs! With Grateful Dead lyrics, there’s always a new and different take on what they bring up for each listener, it seems. (I’ll consider requests for particular songs—just private message me!)

When the Bush regime invaded Iraq in search of the supposed hidden caches of weapons of mass destruction, I changed the kicker line on the “Annotated Lyrics” website to the line from “Blues for Allah”: “The ships of state sail on mirage and drown in sand.”

It has been, what, 11 1/2 years? And despite a regime change here at home, we seem to find ourselves embroiled in an endless war in the Middle East. Once again, the United States is engaged in hostilities that include air strikes and now, boots on the ground, and there is a new enemy, the self-proclaimed Islamic State.

The Grateful Dead refrained fairly emphatically from overt political expression, but “Blues for Allah” stands with those very few songs that do make a statement. “Standing on the Moon”; “Ship of Fools”; “My Brother Esau”; “Throwing Stones”—those few songs (you might argue for “U.S. Blues,” and indeed, several others) stand as the exception.

Hunter wrote about the song, in A Box of Rain: "This lyric is a requiem for King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, a progressive and democratically inclined ruler (and, incidentally, a fan of the Grateful Dead) whose assassination in 1975 shocked us personally. The lyrics were printed in Arabic on the jacket of the Middle Eastern release of the album."

The lyric may be a requiem for a certain King, but it stands as a universal statement about war. “What good is spilling blood? It will not grow a thing.” It includes an overt acknowledgement of the conflict between Muslims and Jews: “Let’s meet as friends / The flower of Islam / The fruit of Abraham.”

It contains an appeal to reason in the face of opposed beliefs:

Let's see with our heart
These things our eyes have seen
And know the truth must still
Lie somewhere in between

I’ve made the case a number of times for the significance of taking a principled stand for not knowing, with the phrase “I don’t know” becoming a touch-point throughout so many of Hunter’s lyrics. When the truth lies “somewhere in between,” we are open to the state of ambiguity, and that alone can defuse conflict, I believe. It’s when people are sure of themselves, when they buy into a dogma, that they feel it is the right thing to kill someone who believes differently.

The lyric includes a number of pointed references, including scriptural (“the needle’s eye is thin”), and literary (“the thousand stories have come round to one again”—a reference to Scheherazade, who also appears in “What’s Become of the Baby?”).

Never a staple of live performance, the song uses a freely-flowing, unmetered melodic line (no time signature is given in the printed music) that breaks out of western musical norms. Nothing unusual about breaking out of norms, for the Dead, but there is something unusual about “Blues for Allah,” musically speaking, that is unlike most of the other unusualness in which the band indulged. It’s a disciplined, planned, and rehearsed weirdness.

“Blues for Allah” is a suite that includes the subsequent “Sand Castles and Glass Camels” (attributed to the entire band) and “Unusual Occurrences in the Desert,” which is credited, as is “Blues for Allah,” to Hunter and Garcia. The mesmerizing “Under eternity, under eternity, under eternity blue,” refrain seems to go on for quite awhile (nine repetitions), and then the “Bird of paradise” section of “Blues for Allah” is reprised, followed by Garcia playing the melody once through. It’s worth noting that the motif that opens the suite on the album is the “Under eternity” phrase.

I enjoy the lyric linkage to “What’s Become of the Baby?” because of the similar position occupied by the two songs on their respective albums—not attempting to sound like songs, really, but as experimental musical compositions with sung parts.

The vocal parts on “Blues for Allah” are varied and complex—great care was taken with the arrangement of the voices so that the various harmonic implications of the melody could be explored, without much in the way of instrumental clues. Donna’s wailing parts over the top of the “under eternity” section are effective and eery and perfect.

I always wished to hear the song done live. I’ve played it, by request of my minister, in a church service as an instrumental piano piece. But really, I need to arrange it for choir, mapping out the vocal harmonies, and enlist my drummer friends to do it right—I think it would be a very effective piece done in a very low-tech, acoustic manner.

The song has been brought back in several performances. Furthur played it, as did Warren Haynes in his “Jerry Garcia Symphonic” shows with symphony orchestras. So I think the song will live on.

But even without any more live performances, the song stands as a reminder of the hopelessness of war.

“Allah—Pray where are you now?”

Insh’allah.

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When the Bush regime invaded Iraq in search of the supposed hidden caches of weapons of mass destruction, I changed the kicker line on the “Annotated Lyrics” website to the line from “Blues for Allah”...

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Greatest Stories Ever Told - "Blues For Allah"

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When the Bush regime invaded Iraq in search of the supposed hidden caches of weapons of mass destruction, I changed the kicker line on the “Annotated Lyrics” website to the line from “Blues for Allah”...

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When the Bush regime invaded Iraq in search of the supposed hidden caches of weapons of mass destruction, I changed the kicker line on the “Annotated Lyrics” website to the line from “Blues for Allah”...

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a very "special" day (night)
floating, with BFA from the album playing.
hmmm. :)
too bad they couldn't incorporate it into the regular rep
The needle's eye is thin...I thought that would be a good tshirt, with the space needle
under eternity
bird of paradise fly in white sky...what a great image.

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musically as well as politically...
personally, i love it. the version on one from the vault is my favorite...if i had a time machine 1975 would be on my top 5 list. and i agree on donna's parts, very eerie and just perfect over the drone of the melody and the other voices.
something i've always wondered about BFA is how in the heck it managed to take shape in the studio rehearsals. our band must have been in a very weird, very adventuresome place

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It was billed as Jerry Garcia and Friends but it was exactly the Grateful Dead.It was a pile of music I had never heard and Blues for Allah itself was just jaw droppingly different.
It was very close in time to the Vault CD.
It was a great time. I was very close to the stage.

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Great post, Mr. Dodd. Definitely a similar vibe to What's Become of the Baby; especially when it comes to which tracks my roommates would beg me to skip when playing the Dead. Definitely love the certainty of the ambiguity of any of our conceptions of knowledge.

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"Arabian night, our gods pursue their fightWhat fatal flowers of darkness bloom from seeds of light"
Given the present occupation of many on the "sides" who fight on Arab lands (among other lands) - one land historically important as "fertile," yes - those two simple lines never expressed so profoundly to me as they have tonight, simply reading them now.
We wield our gods as WE pursue our fight, whether the god is militarism (certainly not Christ), or shown in the icons of liberty, or something wielded in some holy-talking knife-slaughterers that I don't have experience to much begin saying words about.

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The real masterpiece live interpretation of Blues for Allah in my opinion is the select performances by the Phil Lesh Quintet. Rob Barraco, John Molo, Jimmy Herring, Warren Haynes. They were Phil's phinest lineup. Who knows how much actual rehearsing they needed to do? They were locked in. Fantastic jazz, avant guard and blues musicians. They played with fire at the right moments and nuanced drippy drawn-out psychedelia at others.
So yes I do believe the Independence Hall 4/20/2001 Phil Lesh & Friends show is an exceedingly fine performance, far surpassing what the Dead did in their few live performances with the "tune". Listen to the Kezar Stadium 75' show for an interesting Blues for Allah>King Solomons Marbles wrap around. It's the closest they get to transcending the song from the studio to live performance.
I think if they had rehearsed the song more and figured out the parts and movements it would have been a sweet second set jammer combined with tunes like "Playin' in the Band" and "Morning Dew." Imagine the euphoria!
Regardless only performed twice (?) live by the Dead, and mastered by the Q decades and decades later.

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blues for allah similar to darkstar is a nice vehicle for book ending a tasty slice of sound exploration and experimentation. an opportunity to really stretch out too. the beam would have been a wonderful compliment to the arrangement if it had been chosen. i wish this work had been revisited more. blues for allah/drumszspace/blues for allah has such an organic flow. but that is in the realm of "what if" where insanity is king. the real stories i've read/heard about the care, tending and amplification of those crickets by mickey are wonderful and inspiring. it is an example of the beautifully unique and often under appreciated analog solutions the dead employed when creating original and remarkable soundscapes.

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This show is rocking me right now! The sound is great too! (BfA has no vocals, but the jam gets really nice and spacey - and while I love the lyrics, the vocal melody has always been something about this song that has made it a tough listen for me... perfect as an instrumental here!)
http://relisten.net/#grateful-dead/1975/6/17/bill-graham-intro
Holy cold front! Y'all stay warm!
Peace

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The only public performance by the Grateful Dead of "Blues For Allah" with vocals was at the Great American Music Hall on August 13, 1975. This show was recorded and released as One From The Vault.
However, the Dead had a full rehearsal at the GAMH the day before. They had to check out their sound system--they weren't touring, so a one-time-only rig was provided by McCune Audio--and they had to try out their new songs. There are several reels from August 12, 1975. There is every reason to believe that there is another version of "Blues For Allah" with vocals. Indeed, not only vocals, but probably crickets, even if that experiment did not survive into the next night.
The slightest hint of this came when a Dead version of "That'll Be The Day" from August 12, 1975 was put out in the "Tapers Section" several years ago. Presumably, the breakout was because the original was recorded by Buddy Holly And The Crickets. For interested parties, the link is here
http://www.dead.net/features/tapers-section/february-5-february-11-2007
So we can hope that there may yet be another version of "Blues For Allah" yet to be heard by the public at large.

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I agree -- the performance at DAR Constitution Hall on 4/24/01 was a highlight of probably the best of many P&F shows I have seen. The band fully explored the song. I felt fortunate.
Set 1: Jam> I Am The Walrus> Golden Road Celebration> Millenium Jam> The Eleven> Unbroken Chain> *Whiskey River
Set 2: China Cat> I Know You Rider> Mountains of the Moon, Night of 1000 Stars> Cryptical Envelopment> Blues For Allah> Other One> Cryptical> Sugaree
E: Box of Rain
*1st time - Wille Nelson Song
Opening poem:
"You've eaten and drunk well, my lads, on festive shores,
until the feast within you turned to dance and laughter,
love-bites and idle chatter that dissolved in flesh;
but in myself the meat turned monstrous, the wine rose,
a sea-chant leapt within me, rushed to knock me down,
until I longed to sing this song- make way, my brothers!
Oho, the festival lasts long, the place is small;
make way, let me have air, give me a ring to stretch in,
a place to spread my shinbones, kick up my heels,
so that my giddiness won't wound your wives and children.
As soon as I let my words loose along the shore
to hunt all mankind down, I know they'll choke my throat,
and when my full neck smothers and my pain grows vast
I shall rise up- make way!- to dance on raging shores."
.

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Knowing that we don't know can open up into knowing that we do know as well--unless, of course, we don't really know that we don't know. But at any rate, by subscribing to the dogma of non-dogmatism, I can snort at every other kind of dogmatism. Holy Bertrand, extract me! (Or perhaps St. Dilbert?)

but of course! the master of the known knowns! after all these years of searching, finally nothing makes perfect sense... :>)

chsid

4 years ago

Not-knowing knowing

Knowing that we don't know can open up into knowing that we do know as well--unless, of course, we don't really know that we don't know. But at any rate, by subscribing to the dogma of non-dogmatism, I can snort at every other kind of dogmatism. Holy Bertrand, extract me! (Or perhaps St. Dilbert?)

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